The 7,000-ton freighter Chickasaw never saw the rocks that are her graveyards as she plowed full-speed ahead in a Pacific gale 90 miles north of Los Angeles. Radar inoperative, and with no stars upon which to take a navigational fix, the vessel sped straight for the bluffs of Santa Rosa Island, off Santa Barbara.

The tremendous force with which she hit the rocks tore open her bottom and bounced her massive engine off its bed plate. The engine room and several lower holds quickly flooded. As the storm raged on, she broached to the beach where she still lies upright to the is day, two years after that fateful stranding of February 7, 1962. The Chickasaw had made its last journey from Japan.

The owners of the Chickasaw hired several tugs to try to pull her free. Two days later the tugs gave up. Even if they could refloat her, it would cost more to repair her than she was worth. Within a week after she hit the beach, her crew left the ship and her owners advised the cargo interests that they were abandoning further efforts to salvage the vessel.

Cargo worth nearly two million dollars—largely clothing, toys and athletic equipment—was in her holds, and over half a million was insured by Fireman’s Fund. Nearly $1 million of cargo was in the vessel’s upper holds and was not damaged in the accident. Sound cargo was also found in some of the lower holds. Roughly, two-thirds of the cargo was sitting undamaged on the vessel on a relatively uninhabited and isolated island 34 miles south of Santa Barbara.

Rugged Santa Rosa Island, privately owned and with virtually no roads, is sixteen miles long and eight miles wide. The Chickasaw lay at the foot of a 100 foot bluff at the western end.

How to salvage the cargo? Various alternatives were studied, but an offshore salvage system appeared most feasible. Even so, it would cost money—lots of money—and the were no guarantees it would be successful. Salvage failure meant not only a total loss payment to cargo owners but also loss of everything invested in the salvage effort.

With sound cargo estimated at only $1,100,000, and cost of salvaging it at $375,000, damage of any kind whatsoever would rapidly reduce the value of the salvaged cargo to the break-even point. Damaged merchandise will reduce in value by as much as 50 per cent, and estimates of salvage costs can be notoriously low because of the many imponderables in the salvage business.

By February 28, everyone had agreed on the offshore plan and contracts were being prepared. Fireman’s Fund acted as the lead underwriter and banker. Fred Devine, one of the leading West Coast salvage men, was the salvage master and his million dollar salvage vessel, the Salvage Chief, was used as the offshore anchor for the salvage barges. On March 3, Ernie Judd of Pacific Towboat & Salvage Company, whose tugs and barges were used to transport the cargo to Los Angeles, arrived on Santa Rosa Island to set up a "deadman" on the top of the bluff. On March 6, the Salvage Chief left Portland for the disaster scene.

During the next seven days, the vessel swarmed with workers. The Salvage Chief arrived and was securely moored 300 feet off the Chickasaw. A high-line was run from the "deadman" on shore, through the rigging of the No. 3 hatch and out to the winches on the Salvage Chief. A pulley system based on the high-line was rigged between the No. 3 batch and the Salvage Chief. While all this progressed, gangs of laborers loaded cargo into boxes measuring 8’ x 8’ x 8’. The empty boxes had been part of the vessel’s original cargo. The plan was to remove them by means of the high-line.

Throughout this period, Fireman’s Fund pressed into service a unique helicopter airlift. The helicopters flew men and equipment from the vessel to the Salvage Chief, to shore, to Los Angeles. They moved the anchors of the Salvage Chief out for mooring. They hauled the cable that formed the high-line up the bluff to the "deadman." Most important, a helicopter helped to secure the barges under the high-line and to haul the many cables and wires of the intricate complex that secured the barge equidistant between the Chickasaw and the Salvage Chief.

Over $100 thousand had been invested by March 13 and still not one package of cargo had been removed from the vessel. Even more important, the first barge had not even been set up under the high-line. The 14th was lost to poor weather.

Late on the 15th the first barge was ready, and on the 16th the first box of cargo moved off the Chickasaw, across the high-line, and onto the waiting barge. On the 17th the helicopter started moving plywood, part of the cargo, to another barge moored offshore. By this stage, underwriters bad incurred expenses of $175,000 and only had the satisfaction of knowing that the high-line and helicopter operations would work.

The first bargeload arrived safely at Los Angeles on the 18th, the cargo in excellent condition. But success of the venture was far from assured. The weather harried nearly every attempt to set the barges under the high-line and generally interfered with the operation. Costs raced on at better than $10,000 a day. The fifth barge reached port before the cargo’s salved value exceeded expenses to date.

By the end of the first week of April, the end was in sight. Ten barges in and four more would wrap it up. The weather kicked up its heels again. Three days were lost and $30,000 along with them. The last barge left the Chickasaw on April 18 and two days later the high-line was taken down.

Ocean salvage takes courage, ingenuity, capital, and more than a little luck. When the costs were totaled in the Chickasaw operation, Fireman’s Fund had paid out $690,000. The salvaged cargo was worth approximately $1,200,000.

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